Divine & Bizarre: Increasing Points to Invincibility-Chapter 979 - 259: Immortal Jiao!
Li Dahe was the leader of a bandit nest nestled within the mountains, and he had been a bandit in this small territory for at least seventy years. Now, he was over ninety years old and in just three more years he would be celebrating his hundredth birthday. As a bandit in the mountains, how had he managed to live so long? Naturally, it was because he was no ordinary bandit; a steady stream of Mana flowed within him—he was a Cultivator!
"Thanks to the benefits provided by Immortal Jiao, otherwise, as a mere bandit, living to such an old age would have been basically impossible," Li Dahe, seated on a tiger-skin chair, remarked with such introspection. Now, he was already considering how he should celebrate his hundredth birthday three years later. He felt that he should invite the famous heroes of the greenwood to attend his centennial celebration.
Li Dahe, in this small patch of land, was considered a fairly notorious bandit. He believed that the other bandits from nearby nests would definitely give him this face. However, soon, he felt somewhat melancholic and shook his head, worriedly saying, "But there’s still some time before I must offer tribute to Immortal Jiao, yet the problem is... the tribute hasn’t been fully collected yet. These days, the villagers below the mountain have all become cunning."
"Recently, after much trouble, I managed to snatch one boy and two girls, but the tribute for Immortal Jiao needs at least three boys and three girls. Now, I still lack two boys and one girl... Damn it, those women I captured, all of them are useless, they can’t even give birth to a child after so long! If it were possible to rely on the captured women to give birth to boys and girls, then there would be no need to go down the mountain every day to snatch children."
From his self-pitying words, many key messages could be gleaned—there was an entity named "Immortal Jiao" that was aiding and abetting these bandits. And to receive the grace of "Immortal Jiao" was not a simple matter. One needed to offer up three boys and three girls at fixed intervals. Only then would "Immortal Jiao" be satisfied and protect these bandits.
And this Li Dahe... was also quite a schemer, as he had the idea to loot women from below the mountain to bear children. This way, not only could his band of bandits have their way with them, but they could also continuously have a supply of boys and girls. Unfortunately, what he hadn’t anticipated was that giving birth... was not a simple matter. The idea was beautiful, but the reality was harsh.
"Damn it, are those women incompetent? Should I kill them and pick a day to go down the mountain and capture a few more new women? But no, that’s not right! These women have all given birth before, logically speaking, they should be able to have a few more, right? Unless... damn it, could it be those bastards that are incompetent?"
The "bastards" he referred to were naturally his band of bandits. He seriously suspected that it was not the women who were barren, but his own underlings who lacked the capability! He felt this was very likely, especially since those bastards were constantly staying up late gambling, getting drunk every day. It was a wonder they weren’t dead yet; their health was surprisingly good.
Having realized this, he even thought about going down the mountain another day to capture a few sturdier men. If his own underlings couldn’t impregnate those women, then perhaps those sturdier men captured would face no issue? If it remained the same, would he then have to keep going down the mountain to snatch children periodically?
Li Dahe felt that as someone with a bit of ambition, he shouldn’t be so unenterprising, simply plundering whatever he was short of. After all, if he frequently went down to raid, one day... he would definitely scare off the group of villagers below. If the villagers fled, what would he have left to plunder? He certainly couldn’t just go into the towns to loot, could he?
Although raiding the towns wasn’t impossible, it would require bearing substantial losses. What if the town’s militia organized and opposed them? An onslaught of arrows would surely result in many dead bandits, right? Losing even one bandit pained him terribly. If several died, that would be a total loss!
As Li Dahe was lost in his thoughts, all of a sudden, he seemed to hear a strange commotion outside. His brow furrowed involuntarily because he recognized the chaos of the noise—it seemed as if they were being attacked. Vaguely, he heard someone shouting the words "enemy raid."
Hmm? Enemy raid! Li Dahe’s expression changed; it was late night, how could there be an attack? Could it be that the soldiers had organized again, aiming to attack their stronghold? And they chose to do so under the cover of night? Or perhaps, was it a fellow bandit wanting to betray them?
As thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind, before he could even rise from his tiger-skin chair, he saw a familiar-looking bandit underling tumbling and crawling toward him. He saw that the man, while running towards him, was frantically shouting, "Boss! Trouble! Boss!"
